Apparatus for treating a woven fabric



Dec. 16, 1969 TOICHIRO' INADA 3 3 APPARATUS FOR TREATING A WOVEN FABRIC Filed Dec. 11, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet l TOHZHIRO INADA.

IN VENTOR.

BY lfmhhm izb omh Dec. 16, 1969 TOICHIRO'INADA 3,483,720

APPARATUS FOR TREATING A WOVEN FABRIC Filed Dec. 11, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 TOlCHiRO INADA INVENTOR.

United States Patent 3,483,720 APPARATUS FOR TREATING A WOVEN FABRIC Toichiro lnada. Nishinomiya-shi, Japan, assgnor to Konto Dyeing & Finishing Co. Ltd., Niigata-ken, Japan Filed Dec. 11, 1967, Ser. No. 689,600 Claims priority, application Japan, Dec. 12, 1966, 41/ 81,414 int. Cl. D06f 35/00; B651: 17/20, 45/101 US. Cl. 68177 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An apparatus for treating a woven fabric comprising a bath, a winch rovided above the bath and a guide means, which is characterized by having a driving means for reversing the rotation of the said winch at intervals, and means for reversing the relative position of the said winch and guide roll upon the rotation of the winch in normal and reverse directions.

This invention relates to an apparatus for treating a woven fabric in a bath. The apparatus comprises a tank within which a bath of a treating liquid is confined, a winch rotatably mounted above the tank, a guide means for guiding a rope-like woven fabric to the winch, a means for rotating the Winch, a means for reversely rotating the winch at intervals, and a means for putting the guide means always in a forward relation to the winch by changing the relative position of the winch and the g ide means above the tank every time the direction of rotation of the winch is varied.

In short, the apparatus of the invention is adapted to prevent creases from remaining in a rope-like woven fabric after the end of a treatment operation by reversing the direction of pulling up of the fabric staying in a bath at intervals. The relative position of the winch and the guide means is changed at the time of reversing the direction so that the guide means may be positioned on the pullup side of the fabric in relation to the winch throughout the treatment operation.

An apparatus for pulling up and down woven fabrics being treated in a bath by means of a winch to treat the rope-like fabrics in the bath has heretofore been known with respect to apparatuses for dyeing, boiling off or Water-washing woven fabrics. In the conventional apparatus, however, the relative position of the Winch and the guide means is changed simultaneously with the reversing of the rotation of the winch at intervals during the treatment operation. Thus, according to the conventional apparatus, a pulling force is exerted on a woven fabric always in one direction only, and there is an increasing tendency for creases to be formed in the fabric at the start of the operation to remain until after the end of the operation. AS a result, the creases are hard to remove after the end f operation. It was found that an effective way of removing such defect is to reverse the Winch-rotating direction at intervals during the treatment operation. It is impossible to pull up many rope-like fabrics without entanglement unless the guide means is always placed forwardly of the winch with respect to the fabric pull-up direction by changing the relative position of the guide means and the winch simultaneously when the reversing of the direction as above mentioned is carried out.

An object of this invention is to provide an apparatus for treating a Woven fabric adapted to change the relative position of a winch and a means for guiding the fabric to the winch simultaneously with the reversing of the direction of the winch rotation. Another object of this invention is to provide an apparatus for treating a woven fabric by which it is possible to shorten the time of treating the fabric in a bath. A still further object of this invention is to provide an apparatus for treating a Woven fabric which does not give to the fabric creases which are difficult to remove.

The above and other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of an embodiment of the invention given with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of the apparatus of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a guide roll portion f the apparatus of the invention, separate from other portions;

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the elements of the portion shown in FIG. 3; and

FIG. 5 is a side elevation of another embodiment of the invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 designates a tank for a dye bath, and numeral 2, a false bottom which is a plate with many apertures. Within the tank 1 is provided the false bottom spaced at some distance from the inner surface of the tank. A steam pipe 3 for heating the bath is disposed in this space. A liquid heated by the steam pipe replaces the liquid present in the bath, and the entire bath is heated. A winch 4 is rotatably mounted on a shaft on the one end of two arms 8 having as a fulcrum a shaft 7 rotatably supported by a frame (not shown) of the Woven fabric treating apparatus of the present invention. In the embodiment shown in the drawings, the winch 4 has many bars disposed in an elliptical shape around the shaft and in parallel relation to the shaft. Because of such structure, the winch 4, when rotating, pulls up or down, from or into the bath, rope-like fabrics hanging on the winch at unequal speeds (see FIG. 1). A guide roll 5 is rotatably supported on the free end of two arms 9 pivoted on a shaft 15 on the other ends of the arms 8. Ring-like guides 6 provided on a bar 12 which is secured, parallel with the guide roll 5, to arms 10 rotatably supported at both ends by the arms 9 surround the circumference of the roll 5 in a non-contacting relation thereto. A detailed view of this portion is shown in FIG. 3. The guides 6 consist of wires each having a diameter of about 10 mm., and surround the circumference of the guide roll 5 generally in a circular fashion with a sufiicient spacing therefrom. The guides 6 are mounted on collars and fitted to the bar 12 by set-screws 14 at optional intervals. Each of these guides 6 guide the rope-like fabrics passing over the guide roll 5, separating them from each other so that th y do not become entangled. To achieve the purpose of guiding, the portions of the guides 6 which are held on the bar 12 should, during operation, be located rearward of the guide roll 5 relative to the direction in which the fabric advances. This will be further described.

In FIG. 2, the center of a gear 18 secured to the arm 8 corresponds with the center of shaft 7 which acts as a fulcrum of the arm 8, and the center of a gear 18 on the arm 8 on the left side of FIG. 2 corresponds with the center of the first mentioned gear 18. A bushing 20 is supported by the frame, and has rotatably inserted therein a hollow shaft 7 which serves as the fulcrum of the arm 8 on the left side of FIG. 2. To a shaft 21 rotatably inserted in the hollow of the shaft 7 is secured a gear 22 which is engaged with a gear 23 thereby to drive a gear 24- held on the winch 4. The shaft 21 is rotated by a motor M through an ordinary reduction gear R The gear 18 is rotated through half a rotation :by a motor M (FIG. 2) through a reduction gear R and a gear 19, being actuated by a limit switch (not shown) of the customary type. This half-rotation causes the arms 8 to rotate through half a rotation and in turn gives rise to a half-rotation of the winch 4 and guide roll 5 about the shaft 7. Thus, the relative position of the winch and guide roll is reversed. Stops 25, 26, 27 are mounted at suitable positions on the frame for stopping the arms 8 and 9 at predetermined positions. A sprocket wheel 16 is secured to the end of the arm 8, and a chain 13 on the sprocket Wheel 16 is hung on another sprocket wheel 11. The sprocket wheel 11 is screwed to an arm pivoted by means of a shaft 29 held to the lower end of the arm 9, as shown in detail in FIG. 3. One end of this arm 10 is fixed to one end of the bar 12. Another arm 10 is likewise pivoted to the lower end of other arm 9 corresponding to the above arm 9, and other end of the said bar 12 is secured to one end of this arm. The latter mentioned arm 10 has no sprocket.

A general description of the operation of the apparatus of this invention is as follows:

As shown by a solid line in FIG. 1, a long rope-like fabric is hung on both the winch 4 and the guide roll 5 in a ring form :by connecting both ends of the fabric. It

is suspended from both of them, as shown in FIG. 1, and stays in the bath below. When the motor M is driven and the winch 4 is rotated as shown by an arrow B the fabric moves by this rotation in the direction of an arrow A and is treated in a treating liquid in the bath for a certain period of time. After the treatment, the fabric is pulled upwards by the winch, and returned to the bath through the guide roll 5 and the winch 4. After the fabric is transported in this manner for a certain period of time, the motor M stops to halt the rotation of the winch 4 for a short time. During this time, the motor M is driven by a limit switch (not shown) to rotate the arm 8 clockwise around the shaft 7 by a half-turn and stop it. This half-rotation causes the relative position of the winch and the guide roll to be reversed as shown by a dotted line in FIG. 1. Simultaneously, the winch 4 is rotated in the direction of and arrow B This reverse rotation of the winch 4 is effected by reversing the rotation of the motor M by an ordinarily used limit switch (not shown). After continuing the reverse rotation of the winch for some time, the arm 8 is again rotated half a turn, and is returned to the position shown by a solid line in FIG. 1. This cycle is repeated thereafter.

By operating the apparatus in the manner mentioned above, creases do not remain fixed in the fabric even if the operation is continued for a long time. This is because creases caused by the rotation of the winch at one time disappear by a subsequent rotation of the winch in the opposite direction, as the direction of transportation of the fabric in the bath is reversed at intervals by the above-mentioned reverse rotation.

When the arm 8 is rotated half a rotation in the above-mentioned manner, the two arms 9 are suspended perpendicularly from the pivot shaft 15. Thus, the chain 13 on the sprocket wheel 16 secured to the end of arm 8 causes the sprocket wheel 11 to rotate through a certain angle. This swinging causes the arm 10 shown in FIG. 3 to swing through the same angle, and therefore. brings about the rotation of the bar 12 through the same angle around the guide roll 5. When, therefore, the guide roll reaches the position shown by a dotted line FIG. I, the bar 12 is positioned rearward of the guide roll 5, and never prevents the fabric from being guided in contact with the guide roll.

In a modification of the above-described embodiment, the guide roll 5 and guides 6 may be situated directly at the one end of the arm 8, with the omission of the arms 9. In still another embodiment of the invention as shown in FIG. 5, the winch 4 may be rotatably supported on the upper end of an arm 30 pivoted at the lower portion of the apparatus of the invention, and the guide roll 5 and the guides 6 may be provided on appropriate positions on a ring gear 31 of a large diameter. The ring gear 31 is rotatably supported by supporting rolls 32, and is rotated by a driving gear 33. Modifications of the above-described embodiments may be made within the spirit of the present invention.

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for treating a Woven fabric comprising a bath, a winch and a guide means provided above the bath, a driving means coupled to said winch for re versing the rotation of the said winch at intervals, and means on which said winch and guide means are mounted for reversing the relative positions of the said winch and guide roll for achieving proper cooperation of the winch and guide means during rotation of the winch in both the normal and reverse directions.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the means on which said winch and guide means are mounted is a plurality of pivoted arms, said Winch and guide means being secured to opposite ends of the pivoted arms.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the means on which said winch is mounted is a pair of pivoted arms, and the means on which said guide means is mounted is a swingable supporting means mounted on said arms.

4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the means on which said winch is mounted is a pair of oscillatable arms and the means on which said guide means is mounted is a rotatable annular frame.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,232,653 7/1917 Buhl 68l77 FOREIGN PATENTS 968,488 9/ 1964 Great Britain. 448,440 5/ 1949 Italy.

WILLIAM I. PRICE, Primary Examiner 

